1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning a gun barrel having striations, and more particularly, to an apparatus for cleaning a gun barrel having striations that can uniformly clean an inner surface of the gun barrel by moving divided plates, which come in contact with the inner surface of the gun barrel. The apparatus moves forward/backward in the gun barrel using a cam device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
After a shell is fired, alien substances produced due to the combustion of gun powder and ammunition are adhered to the inner surface of the gun barrel, and this lowers the accuracy of the shell being fired. Accordingly, after the gun barrel is used, the alien substances stuck on the inside of the gun barrel are removed and anti-corrosive oil is sprayed.
Typically, firearms having large-sized gun barrels such as self-propelled artilleries and towed howitzers are limited in disassembly, cleaning, and lubrication when they are repaired and maintained, as compared with common rifles which are individual carrying firearms.
In particular, the cleaning and washing of an inner surface of a gun barrel is performed in a manner that a brush is fixed to an end part of a connection rod, and the repetitive pushing/pulling operation of the connection rod into/from the gun barrel removes alien substances remained in the gun barrel after firing. This cleaning process requires lots of labor and physical strength, and many hours.
In order to solve the above problems, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0039179, Korean Patent No. 10-0377487, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0033030, which are entitled “Apparatus for automatically cleaning a gun barrel” have been proposed by the applicant.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are cross-sectional views of conventional apparatuses for automatically cleaning a gun barrel.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, one conventional apparatus for automatically cleaning a gun barrel includes a drive unit 20, a cleaning unit 30 and a spray unit 40 which are installed between drive motors 20a and 20b. Another conventional apparatus for automatically cleaning a gun barrel as illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a gear housing 100, a main shaft 200, a sun gear 300, planet gears 300, and an external gear 500.
These conventional cleaning apparatuses use a method of cleaning an inner surface of the gun barrel whereby the cleaning apparatus rotates or moves cleaning members provided thereon forward/backward as it enters along the inner surface of the gun barrel using the drive motors.
However, the above-described cleaning apparatuses have the drawbacks in that they are not effective in cleaning the inner surface of the gun barrel having striations formed on the inner surface of the gun barrel to give a rotating force to the fired shell.
For an improvement on the above-described cleaning apparatuses, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0098356 “Method of cleaning an inner surface of a gun barrel” has been proposed by the applicant. According to this method, cleaning members are arranged to correspond to directions of striations and are fixed to divided plates.
The above-described cleaning method, however, has the problems that an effective cleaning cannot be performed due to the striations formed on the inner surface of the gun barrel, and the movement of the cleaning apparatus becomes intermittent due to friction occurring as the cleaning members come in contact with the inner surface of the gun barrel during the cleaning.
In addition, the above-described conventional cleaning apparatuses and methods have no means for checking the state of the inner surface of the gun barrel after the gun barrel is cleaned, and this causes an ineffective cleaning.